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Podcast Website large Gillian Paston

Ruth Ellis: the last woman to be hanged in Britain . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A crowd gathers to watch the witnesses arrive for the trial of John George Haigh, the 'acid bath murderer', in Lewes, East Sussex, July 1949. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

10 facts about crime on the home front in the Second World War

A scene from ’Othello’ by William Shakespeare, published in 1622. The play “seems to have been influenced by Anglo-Moroccan relations that reached their high point in the summer of 1600,” writes Brotton. (Culture Club/Getty Images)

Elizabethan England’s relationship with the Islamic world

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Vikings on screen

Vikings on screen . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Austrian physicist Lise Meitner

6 women in science history you (probably) didn’t know about

Lagertha, portrayed by Katheryn Winnick, in season 4 of Vikings. (Credit: Jonathan Hession/History)

‘Vikings’ creator Michael Hirst on the real history behind the hit drama

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Podcast Website large Graham Griffiths

Music and revolution . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Podcast Website large Simon Schama

Schama on ‘Civilisations’ . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Science and suffrage

Science and suffrage . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The Terracotta Warriors podcast

The Terracotta Warriors . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British 40th Division tanks transporting captured German guns from the battle of Cambrai. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)

First World War

5 tanks that changed the course of the First World War

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Podcast Website large Sayegh Wissam

BBC Arabic at 80 . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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With its grand mansion fronting almost 200 miles of waterways, St Petersburg often draws comparisons to venice (SergeyVButorin / Getty Images)

Explore St Petersburg, Russia: the Venice of the north . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Earth Seen from Space Shuttle Discovery 1990

Earth from space: How pioneering photos changed our view of the planet

Replica chariot. (© Mr. Ziyu Qiu)

In pictures: The Terracotta Warriors